The Dickinson press., 1887-12-10

Not only have the farmers and their wives
been early ri>rrs, but nearly all who have fol-
lowed other occupations have been also. IL
Observance OF Franklin'S maxim has had any
predominant effect conducive to longevity,
the fact We have Just stated strikes II hard
blow ut the theory of some physicians, who
claim that man should not go abroad in the
morning until the sun has lrcn up long
enough to dissipate the noxionS Napors which
n risen from and ovcrhang the carth's
surface during the night.
So marked We're the instances of early ris-
ing and retiring that The Globe made Il list
of persons who may he said to represent the
extremists of at least tile first lines of the
maxim, and found that out of about 1000
persons whose habits of life We're intelligent
ly set forth in the blanks 80 men have been
through life in the habit of lying abed not
later than $50 o'clock in the morning, while
S2S women always have risen before Il II. H.,
most of whom Stlll continue to do ST.. These
are the people who were trained from youth
to get a grip on the days work that did not
loosen until ii was done: who cleared our
forests, built our roads. founded our towns.
established or school system, and from tho
native richness Hf their country homes sent
into the world the sturdy young men. the
rosy checked young women, with whose i'll
tluX tn" town became the city. the city Il
metropolis. and a profitable market was ere
atcd for the products of the farms they had
left. and the money made in mercantile life
went back Ia the tillrIs of the soil and our
inland commerce came into being.
One correspondent, writing from New
market. y. H.. gives q good i,lca of the cir
cum>talrc> "f some of the old people he has
seen. and advances one ur two ideas Not I'M
supported 10y medical opinion. He says: II
could extend names almost indefinitely of
men all around here living on an abundance
of plain food. hard workers, no liquors. rcgu-
lar i'll their habits. who never die from dis
ease. but on'y rs old age takes them off. |
include regular church attendance. because
l believe that TO he an important matter as
giving peace of mind, contentmcnt and hope
al favorable to longevity. On the other
hand. ! could furnish a large list of persons
who. other things being favorable, have
killed themselves with liquor, cider. irrcgu-
larity in eating. working and sleeping: some
living to good age but always sichly. Men
and women living in the neighiorhood, who
have been temperate i'll all things. never die.
If they escape consumption. except from
pneumonia or othe! acute disease. Almost
every farmhouse that has remained in the
same family for a century will he Il home for
three or -four generations, all living together.
extremes neutrality-suspicious. company for
each other and tho iappicst families that can
be found. No danger OF iilial love and rev
ercnce dying out in such families as these
''Thcrc is one point which l have tried to
bring ont i'll this canvass among the old
people" writes another correspondent. "ani
that is the effect III tobacco on the health.
If this point has been as carefully considered
by other correspondents and with the same
results, it ulleviatcS the fears which many
may entertain about nicotine and the cur
tailment of life ~ the use Of tobacco.
Among the very Oldest OF the people inter-
viewed. between no and loo. the men have
been addicted To the use Of tobacco, in the
majority OF cases, since an early age"
But or returns fail to show that any con-
siderable number of the old people ever made
habitual Use of liquor through life: and it
must be borne in mind That the Medford rum
of our grandfathcrs and other liquors in use
half Il century ago were without doubt purcr
and better than Observation-Disclosures of the
liquor sold today. One hundred and fifty of
the old gentlemen say positively that they
never used liquor OF tobacco in II form. 81
confess to the use of liquor only, II to the
use of tobacco only, while s. admit having
made habitual use of both liquor and to.
bacco. though instances of immoderate use
of liquor are very rare. We cannot think
these figures accurate, as it is doubtful il this
subject was thoroughly canvassed. but it is
safe to say that q very small proportion of
the men and but Il trivial number of the
women made habitual use of liquor and to-
bacco.
1t is curious to note, by the way, that
many of the men who used liquor only in
early life ceased using it entirely, while of
the men who used liquor and tobacco nearly
all who discarded liquor chung to the tobacco
habit. Cider. forty-four men say, they have
drank for years, but the effect of hard cider
upon the constitutions nnot he learned from
Tho Globes figures until some Of the FAIRNESS
that had nothing TO say on the subject are
heard from.
The statistics of women who made habitual
use of liquor OF tobacco are more incomplete
than of the men. Only three were willing to
say that they had used snutf-which must DO
Il very small proportion of the correct num-
ber-and eleven admit having smoked, which
proportion, too. must be small.
With exceptions so few as to lie not worth
recording numerically, the old people upon
the list have had three meals u day, at reg,l,
lar hours, of substantial food through their
lives; and, what is more interesting, nine.
tenths Of them still continue to eat heartily,
and OF whatever they like. 1t is a hvsienic
law that three light meals a day are better
for elderly people in health than one heavy
one, and our old people, of course, are simply
following the dictates of nature, while at the
same time they prove the truth of her teach.
ings. Tea and coffee, too, they use, one OF
the other, but most of them both, with only
about Il dozen exceptions. Some have taken
to drinking these beverages late in life, but
not enough, we may infer, to affect the &C.
curacy of the statement that nearly all Of
them AVE been tea and coffee drinkers.
OF vegetarians but nine are mentioned, five
men and four women. Two women eat nc
vegetables. one eats none that grow above
ground, one eats no fish and one eats no meat
To SUN up their table habits, our octogena
rians as a whole lave eaten and drunk Just
what the rest Of the family have, in you'll
and in old age.
Several instances of the milk cure'' are re
corded. Human milk contains very little fatt,
matter, and SKINNED milk closely resemble
1t; and the remedy consists in living for
time exclusively on SKINNED milk: II,
strength is lost by the natural process of di
gestion, and the surplus nutriment gained b,
thus furnishing the stomach with what it cal
digest with little effort goes into the bloc
and builds up the system, and, as one write
says, "the effect of thus returning to the sim
pie nourishment of childhood strikingly an
beautifully illustrates the chemistry of tn
living body.r-Boston Globe.
There are sixty-eight tribes Of Indians i
our country without Christian missionaries.